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If you'd like to relive the Penn Sate game to get ready for Michigan, I wrote an in-depth breakdown with clips of Keisei Tominaga picking apart the Nittany Lions every way possible. https://hailvarsity.com/basketball/nebrasketball-film-study-keisei-tominagas-30-point-explosion/

If you told me before the season that we would win 13 games (A little assuming here) against one of the ten toughest schedules in the country while missing your star player for the first 6 games AND suffering two massive injuries but the team was disciplined, played hard and it made sense to the fans what they were trying to accomplish schematically, I would have accepted it. Trev wanted improvement in effort, toughness and discipline to keep his job. I think we are seeing it, as well as the on-court results of those things.

A coach who has won multiple P6 conference championships and made 4 NCAA tourneys, including a Sweet 16, has a ceiling of "close to a .500 record." Really? There is no arguing his first 3 years here weren't a fiasco, but before the injuries they were on track to finish .500 or better *this year*. It would take willful ignorance to not see the improvements in culture and on-court play this season. If you want him fired despite that improvement...hey, it's a bottom-line business and the W/L record is what it is so I get it. I just think the context of the current trajectory warrants another year to see how things go (especially with an $11 mil buyout). The grass isn't always greener and Nebrasketball history tells me there is no guarantee the next guy won't be a disaster too. I'd rather roll the dice one more time on a guy what has done it before and is showing signs of getting it figured out again.

While we're day dreaming, think how much more this would open up the offense. Walker has been very good, but limited offensively. Traudt would force defenders to guard him beyond the 3-point line and is explosive enough to put the ball on the floor and go by people.

Hindsight is 20/20, as everyone knows. If we keep him and he has another moribund season, we can fire him after next year and everyone can say, "yep, we knew it." If we keep him and he knocks it out of the park, we can all say "hey, I saw it coming based on how much better the product on the floor looked last year." It's not like any of us are going anywhere, so I'm not sure how it hurts to run it back another year. I'm staying put. Y'know, to create what is probably a bad analogy, it's like playing poker and everyone calls. Why fold at that point? You're not risking anything by seeing what happens after that. I don't know that we're risking anything by keeping Fred another season. I do think we'd be risking something by switching coaches again. And what we're risking is that we would basically be going back to absolute square one on a 3-4 or 5 year rebuild. Having said all that, I also want to add that your computer stuff doesn't resonate with me for two reasons: 1. Some of you guys like your stats; I like relying on what my eyes tell me, and my eyes tell me this is a better scheme than we've had over the course of the last several coaches, and we just need some luck in getting a bit of a talent upgrade through the portal; and 2. I said back in December that the computers had not yet caught up with how much better we were this year. They still assumed we were the bad team we were the last few years. Go back and look if you want to. I still believe that. I still believe we were ahead of the computers. That's why our ranking continued to climb until Gary got hurt. Anyway, as I've said before, I'm firmly in the camp of giving this one more go before we scrap everything and start over. There's just enough there to make me think it could work and has a better chance than picking whatever coach is behind Door #3.

We have a pretty good on-court recruiting pitch, as we'll be able to show on film that we're willing to run our entire offense through a forward/big.

This is where stats can always be used to paint whatever narrative anyone wants. Fred's record is a fact and not really debatable - it's been horrendous. If we're getting into the weeds on projections for this individual year, I personally throw those out the window. I think Robin tweeted out that when our core 5 played together we were something like 7-3 with some debate about whether it was really 6-4. I don't really care which is right because I know what my eyes told me. I believed for the first time in many, many years I was watching a competent and dare I say, good, basketball team. The games against Creighton and Iowa were no flukes. Nebraska was the better team. I was in town and watched the heartbreaking loss to Purdue. The fact that game was close was also not a fluke. Now, it's super convenient for me or anyone else to give the Fred the benefit of the doubt this year when the sample size I'm referring to is so small. Again, we have the past 4 years that do not paint a good picture. And, it certainly is on Fred that our depth isn't where it should have been. But, it does look to me that our future depth appears to be improving significantly based on what I'm seeing from the young kids. However, as I and many others have stated, what if Fred finally figured it out here? The formula this season is very much repeatable and it looks like we have some pieces in place to keep it going. The new staff, in their first year for most, hit some home runs in the transfer portal. The transfer portal is a crap shoot but these guys appear to me to know what they are looking for. I guess the bottom line for me is I believe the ceiling next year for Fred is higher than whatever new coach we were to hire. Yes, I'm probably a prisoner of past Nebraska basketball history but honestly, this history is well earned. This place has been tough to win at, obviously, and that doesn't mean it will always be that way. Still, I have no confidence the next guy is the one to figure out the winning formula but I will hang my hat (maybe irrationally) on the handful of games this year where I legitimately thought we were a good team. That at least gives me hope for next year in wanting to run this thing back one more time with Fred. Remember when Fred was hired, Doc said that Rome wasn't built in a day. It took over 1200 years to build Rome so in the grand scheme of things, one more year of Fred is very insignificant in the timeline of the undeniable empire we are very slowly and clearly building here

I’ve already said I’m in favor of keeping Fred, based on some improvement and the desire to avoid discord over the firing. However, let’s not overstate what he’s accomplished this year. On January 10, before Gary was injured, NU was 106th on Torvik, 13th in the Big Ten and predicted to finish 13-18.

Emmanuel Bandoumel went out in the first PSU game. Juwan Gary went out against Illinois on January 10. It's been four games since we lost Bandoumel to a season-ending knee injury. I was curious how their minutes have been distributed. Before they were hurt, Bandoumel and Gary were both averaging about 30 minutes per game. Before Bandoumel was hurt, CJ Wilcher was averaging 29.55 min/game; in the 4 games since then, he's been averaging 20.75 min/game. So, he's actually lost minutes. Before Bandoumel was injured, Jamarques Lawrence was averaging 10.5 min/game; in the 4 games since then, he's been inserted into the starting lineup and is averaging 27.25 min/game. Before Bandoumel was hurt, Keisei was averaging 20.4 min/game; in the 4 games since then, he's averaging 28.75 min/game. Before Gary was hurt, Wilhelm was averaging 13 min/game; in the 6 games since a 23-minute season high at Purdue, Wilhelm's minutes have steadily declined, and, in the last five games, he's averaging 10 min/game while only checking in for 6 minutes in the win against PSU. Before Gary was hurt, Denim Dawson was averaging 11.57 min/game; in the 7 games since Gary was hurt, Denim has averaged a whopping 28.29 min/game. When Juwan Gary went down, I didn't think we'd win another game this season. After watching this team continue to fight against Purdue, I thought we had a chance to maybe steal a couple. We've now done that with home wins over tOSU and PSU. We still have 4 more *home* games remaining, including a couple against two teams currently in the bottom 4 of the current conference standings. For real. When does that ever happen to us? We have 2 of our remaining 4 home games against teams currently in the bottom 4. And a third game against the current 9th place team. The freshmen have really taken advantage of the opportunity. Jamarques Lawrence, for instance, is averaging 47.4% from 3-point range since he joined the starting lineup after Bandoumel went down. Can't complain about that at all. And those two frosh are showing they can "D" up with the best on our team. Bandoumel was better than Lawrence on D, but Lawrence is clearly the more potent offensive weapon. And I just don't know what you do with Denim. He's offensively very raw, but he gives so much energy when he's on the floor. I would hasten to add Denim scored only 19 total points in the first 14 games combined, but he's scored 25 points in the 7 games since Gary got hurt. Similarly, he had 15 rebounds in the first 19 games, and he's grabbed 31 in the 7 games since. So, his averages since Gary went down are 3.57 pts and 4.43 rebounds. But that's in the same number of minutes, roughly, as Gary who was giving us 9.5 and 6.5 pts and bds respectively. Gary's better, clearly, but Denim is contributing significantly and we've won just as much. So, we've had a few underclassmen really step up their games when opportunity knocked. And a couple of underclassmen who've maybe disappeared a bit. We'll see how the season finishes but this gives us a bit of a window into the future perhaps.

I do think you are correct that Amy only wants players that fit the culture she wants here. Players like Leigha Brown do not fit what she wants here and if they do come, then they may leave early. But I would add part of the difference from last year to this year is we had players (Cravens, Cayton) that play with a more aggressive stance, think boxing...last we took a punch and punched right back mostly, this year we take a punch and we either fold or wait too long to punch back. You need a healthy balance of both in my view. You hope you get players that are more aggressive that know how to channel it. Now this is not the only problem with this years team but just one of many.

Natalie Potts is coming from St. Louis next season.

If I were to get beaned by some Creighton fan I guarantee that I wouldn't walk out with the worst head injury among the attendees

The thing that intrigues me about Quaran is he had an offer from Ed Cooley. If you have ever watched Providence, they are tough, physical kids. He looks the part and Ed Cooley liked him….I want to see what he brings to the table. I just hope he fully recovers from his knee injury.

3P% over the last three games is 41%

You know, with JL, Sam H, and Keisei now getting a large portion of the Bandoumel/Gary minutes, it stands to reason our three point percentage could/should improve. And gosh if CJ gets it figured out, we might have something here.

If you can't muster any optimism about Hoiberg and would prefer to see him fired, that's fair. But what year he is currently in does not matter. Tim Miles took us dancing in his 2nd year, but his 3rd, 4th and 5th years were much worse coached teams than his 1st. Those teams were so bad, they lost to Gardner Webb, Samford and Incarnate Word. We fully expected to get handled by a middle of the pack Michigan team at PBA on senior night in '17. We lost by about 40 (in year 5?!) Did you have any optimism after that game? Well, the next year was arguably Miles' best team. This year's team, when everyone was healthy and active, was very competitive. We weren't outmanned or outcoached by anyone. Including the #1 team in the country. If Trev does fire Hoiberg, no one will argue that decision. But this team does play sound, solid basketball. Offensively, there is constant movement and they share the ball in a way that we haven't seen from a Nebraska team in a very long time. Defensively, they are still top 50 in the country without the two best defenders (and now the two best defenders might be freshmen). If you don't think there's a difference in the "plan", that's on you. The entire culture has changed into something that's sustainable. You either aren't watching it or you aren't seeing it.

Watched some of South Carolina, LSU, Louisville, etc in the last few days. Holy smokes...speed....quickness...leapers. Another level. Not sure any B1G team could beat any of them. Miracles happen, but the B1G will need help

royalfan, can I use your post to sidetrack this thread for just a moment? I learned yesterday that one of Aurora's finest, and actually Hampton's as well, passed. Dave Hahn died at the age of 66. As far as all-time great athletes from Aurora, there is Tom Kropp and then everyone else ties for second. I think Dave was at the top of that list. He attended Hampton Lutheran grade school through the eighth grade. That grade school team played Aurora Junior High his last year and beat them by double digits. Where he lived, he had the chance to go to high school in Hampton or Aurora. He, of course, chose Aurora. Great decision. However, that eighth grade team from Hampton Lutheran went on to win 51 straight games at Hampton High. Had Dave gone to Hampton, that streak would have been in the upper 70's. Super nice guy! RIP!

Not that it matters, but that game was at home. We had them sweating in Ann Arbor until KT got T'ed up.

CJ threw a textbook chest pass. To the Michigan player.

Already getting hosed

Love it. Defend the paint, force the three, multiple defenses, and score 75. So you are saying we have a chance?

Nebraska Cornhuskers (11-13) at Michigan Wolverines (13-10) Date: February 8th, 2023 Time: 5:30 pm Arena: Crisler Center Broadcast: BTN Michigan Info Head Coach: Juwan HowardLocation: Ann Arbor, MIConference: B1GNickname: Wolverines Point Spread: Michigan by 10.5 Typical Rotation Depth: 8 KenPom rank: 57 A couple of Famous Alumni: Glen Rice, Rudy Tomjanovich Other: Nebraska Men's basketball has never won a game in Ann Arbor, 0-11 lifetime. The closest they've been is 6 points, including last season losing 85-79 Both coaches have sons on their respective teams. Fred Hoiberg's son Sam plays for the Huskers while Juwan Howard's sons Jace and Jett play for Michigan KenPom Analysis: Michigan doesn't turn you over and doesn't generate a ton of fouls which is good news for Nebraska. Player to watch: C Hunter Dickinson Dickinson remains the focal point of the Wolverine offense and defense. He doesn't shoot a ton from the outside but he's hitting 37% from 3. Player to watch: F Jett Howard Juwan's youngest son Jett is projected to be a first round pick in this upcoming draft and the 3 level scorer is the complement outside to Dickinson PG SG SF PF C Pct 1 0 Dug McDaniel 5-11 160 Fr 2 Kobe Bufkin 6-4 195 So 13 Jett Howard 6-8 215 Fr 5 Terrance Williams 6-7 225 Jr 1 Hunter Dickinson 7-1 260 Jr 32.3 Others to watch Freshman Guard Dug McDaniels was thrust into the starting lineup with Sr PG Jaelin Llewellyn out for the season after 8 game. Provides a steady hand and 3pt shooting Bufkin does most of his scoring inside the arc Forward Terrance Williams is a glue guy 6'7" Duke transfer Joey Baker shoots over 40% from 3 6'7" Jace Howard and 6'10" Center Tarris Reed are dept UNL Game Notes Probable starters for Nebraska 5 Sam Griesel G 6-7 30 Keisei Tominaga G 6-2 10 Jamarques Lawrence - G 6-3 32 Wilhelm Breidenbach F 6-10 13 Derrick Walker F 6-9 Bench 0 C.J. Wilcher G 6-5 12 Denim Dawson - F 6-6 15 Blaise Keita C 6-11 12 Sam Hoiberg G 6-0 33 Oleg Kojenets F 7-0 35 Henry Burt F 6-6 24 Jeffrey Grace III G 6-3 Injured 3 Quaran McPherson G 6-3 - Out for the Year 4 Juwan Gary F 6-6 - Out for the Year 25 Emmanuel Bandoumel G 6-4 - Out for the Year Redshirting 2 Ramel Lloyd Jr. G 6-6 31 Cale Jacobsen G 6-4 Hoibergs Presser Seems like Keita would have been available vs Penn St but didn't play given their lack of post depth. He's brought up quite a bit and should play vs Michigan who almost always has a traditional post on the court. Sam mentions that on the flight back from Penn St that Fred told him he was the 9th man. The Skinny: Nothing like a win to get the Husker faithful from wondering if we will replace the coach to wondering if we could actually make a post season. Winning on the road in this conference though is no small feat and it will be one for the record books if Nebraska can nab their first ever win in Ann Arbor. Nebraska will try and cover Dickinson with at least 2 guys tonight and the plan will be to try and scramble on 3pt shooters. I think it will be about how well Nebraska can shoot at the crazy thing is that with Lawrence and Hoiberg playing is that it's picked up. Suspect that Michigan will key in on Tominaga after he went off for 30 so it will be up to the rest of the team to manufacture points. Thus far the Huskers have struggled to score over 60 on the road. (not counting their OT win over Minny) Prediction: Michigan 72 - Nebraska 59 View full article

A point of clarification here, it's not a top 10 SOS. We currently have the #4 SOS according to KenPom, so make that top 5.

Correct. He is not coaching. Or should I say "coaching."

I think he'd be eligible as a sophomore and would have to apply for a medical redshirt after his senior year.

We get the suburban players but maybe we could use some urban toughness in the B1G. I am happy we have a nice team. I believe we can be better.

In the immortal words of @49r and others: "This would not suck."

Sounds like Blaise Keita will possibly play significant minutes as they have Dickenson. For reference, Blaise has played 20 total minutes in 2023 though he did play 11 vs Illinois on Jan 31st

We just saw this happen last year with Matthew Mors

If we were to believe what we read on other message boards, seems there continues to be smoke regarding Isaac Traudt? They say he's homesick. His girlfriend plays volleyball at Creighton. But someone says they have firsthand info that Traudt is not a fan of McDermott.

Very roughly, Denim is taking Gary's minutes and Lawrence and Hoiberg are taking Bando's minutes

The movement is much cleaner this year. Passing to keep the offense moving instead of only passing when you are trying to boost your assist numbers.

It’s worth mentioning in light of last nights events, that Lew Alcindor went 88-2 @ UCLA winning 3 National Titles before Freshman were allowed to play. #Lakeshow

Look at the comments made when some fans wanted Urban Meyer while completely overlooking what went down under Osborne. This isn't a double standard I thought I was clear in my comments. Mickeys actions happened while he was employed with the university what he did was a fireable offense. That doesn't mean he shouldn't get a second chance somewhere.

It’s easy to forget that the Fab Five did NOT Win a Title & Howard had the least impressive NBA career of the Big 3 (Rose & Webber the other 2) Take the Huskers & the points…!

I'll do my best here I'll do Seniors and Juniors. This is going by KenPom info and of course starting lineups change so it's not an exact science so YMMV: Indiana: 2 SR, 1 JR Illinois: 2 SR, 1 JR Iowa: 2 SR, 3 JR Maryland: 4-5(ish) SR, 1 JR Michigan: 0 SR, 2 JR Michigan State: 3 SR, 1 JR Minnesota: 1 SR, 2 JR Nebraska: 3 SR, 2 JR (before season ending injuries) Northwestern: 3 SR, 2 JR Ohio State: 2 SR, 1 JR Penn State: 4 SR, 1 JR Purdue: 0 SR, 3 JR Rutgers: 3 SR, 2 JR Wisconsin: 1 SR, 3-4(ish) JR

I know this has nothing to do with the purpose of your post, but Juwan was just riding the waves of upperclassmen who got some real good coaching the first 2-3 years of their college careers. He’s not a good head coach and will get fired before too long. I felt the need to add this simply because I can’t stand that guy.

At least in a tie-up you have a chance to keep possession depending on the possession arrow. Throw it away and you get a turnover; and maybe transition leading to easy scores.

We need to adjust to how the game is being called. I can’t blame Northwestern for being aggressive and physical because they sensed the panic in the Huskers. When trapped, we need to be STRONG with the ball and not throw feeble passes. Teammates need to come to the ball instead of running away from it. Live ball turnovers are killers. I would rather the trapped player get tied up than throw the ball away. We have enough veteran ball players to prevent this from happening. Glad we found a way to win.

One thing I wonder. This is only the 2nd year with a new AD. Should we somewhat discount the first two years? What does the plan look like going forward? Is this year building a winning culture/formula? If this were year 2 how are we feeling? If the AD and head coach have a new plan do we give that more time?

Isn't that the nature of college sports?

I had wanted to do the Simon & Simon thing last year with the McGowens brothers but it turned out they didn't actually pass the ball to each other

That (in bold) had an awfully lot (not all obviously) to do with the turnovers in 4th. We made some quizzical passes all game long, to put it nicely. Watch the game replays/highlights and see how different their defense was fouling compared to the crazy 4th qtr. Penn St was similar...they got away with stuff. Like the turn of a switch at about 2 min left, late in the game, the refs starting calling all of NW fouls, and the game got back to sanity. Had the fouls been called all game long like that, we would have won be 25 possibly. Anyway as exhausting as it was....we got the win. It was an important win at this stage of the B1G standings. Have some really tough games coming up. Making the NCAAs brackets will be nip and tuck to the end. Having a chance that's all we can ask for at this point. A win is a win folks!! Whenever Issie decides to leave we'll really miss what she can do on the court. She has another dimension we can't duplicate right now. Just a great reliable and respectful kid, we have to be so appreciative of her coming to UNL

This team has some serious problems. Too much experience on this team to make this many errors. It can not just be the players. This is more than loosing one player (Allison). Thursday could be a long night.

That Northwestern had 34 points in the 1st three quarters, then scored 32 in the 4th quarter, well, that's ridiculous enough. But, at the same time, I also felt that the refs allowed NW to ramp up their pressure by fouling somewhat regularly without consequence for a sizeable stretch of the 4th, then suddenly those same refs called foul after foul on NW once the Huskers were in the bonus. Weird how it played out, not even discussing the inane number of turnovers, oh wait, I just did. Sheesh, that was way too stressful for a game "out of reach"!

2024 SG Jordan Zubich, 5-11, Mtn-Iron HS (MN) - Offered (announcing Sun 2/12) It would be a Coup to get Zubich!! Huskers in her final Six (Seemed to have loved her OV)

I admire Grace Berger because of the above.

What's done is done and I could argue both sides on whether Miles should have been let go or not. Keep in mind that Miles was here 7 years and he made post season in 3 of them with 1 NCAA appearance and 2 in the NIT. However, it really should have been 2 NCAA appearances as we won 22 games and went 13-5 in conference and ended up in NIT. Either way, that is about half his time here, he made it to post season. Assuming most people would take that at this point. And let's not forget that No-Sit Sunday happened under his watch. One of my favorite quotes from Tim after he was hired was that if the person behind you tells you to sit down, you just tell him Coach Miles said I don't have to. Like Tim or not, he was the one and only coach who made it cool to be a Nebraska Basketball fan